Speak Up!

In light of some recent events that have taken place on campus in regards to our Student Senate, I have deemed in appropriate to direct my frustration and anger to a source where it might actually do some good. I    wrote an email to our Dean of Students, Chris Ogle, and I thought I might post that email here so that I can hopefully inspire others to write something as well and propel this issue forward. Below is the email:

Hello, I am writing to you right now as an incredibly frustrated student who has lost some faith in her college and its morals. I have just been brought up to date on Senate's happenings from last night by a friend. I was aware Parallax's One-Fund failed. To be honest, it did not come as a surprise because Senate seems to be incredibly stringent when it comes to spending any sort money. Therefore I expected to hear that there were some discussions and then hopefully some revisions to the One-Fund and that it would be eventually passed. I am a great supporter of Parallax for many reasons. I am an English major who hopes to enter the world of editing/publishing/writing as a professional someday. But I am also an appreciator of the fine arts and therefore love to see anything of that nature on campus, especially when it is the work of students! You can imagine then, that I was aghast to learn that Senate approved a One-Fund for $15,000 that same night for something of which I am insanely opposed. My reasons and personal beliefs behind why Karl Rove should never step foot on this campus are besides the point, because what I am most upset about is the amount of money Senate suddenly deems fit to spend on a single speaker for a singular group with a small student base on campus. Yet they can find issue with the amount of money Parallax requested for an academic-based, student-led and created book of fine art. This is outrageous! I was informed that the Senate budget at the beginning of the year was around $87,000. To spend $15,000 on a single speaker would be spending almost 20% of our budget. I say "our" because the money belongs to the students. It comes from OUR activity fee and goes to fund OUR events. Thus, the students on campus should be able to have a say in where that money is spent. Last time I checked that was the point of Student Senate. A group of student representatives gather the opinions of their constituents and meet to vote on the ways in which our money should be spent. I no longer feel like that is how Student Senate functions. The way it runs now, a handful of students meet to decide how to spend our money based on their own opinions and views and leave those of their constituents out completely. I have felt that the senators in general have an air of self-entitlement. They forget they represent a larger entity beyond themselves. You can see why this would be problematic. Only the students (senators) in the room get to have a say. I can say this with confidence because I was a senator for a semester during my sophomore year. When I contacted my constituents I received responses and the first response I got was basically the same. The students responded saying they had no idea they had a senator before me and had no idea who it was or how to contact them. I have also discussed with other students who live in a variety of residence halls (and therefore have a variety of senators representing them) and they, too, have not been asked for their opinions or how they would like their senator to vote. As a senior I am currently living off-campus with my boyfriend and neither of us knew that there was a representative for off-campus students, much less who he is. This infuriates me. If I choose to not offer my opinion that is fine, but I deserve the right to be asked and should feel confident that my senator is going to voice my concerns and vote accordingly. However, this is not the case. And now that there are matters at hand about which I feel passionately, I feel cheated. I do not think the One-Funds presented at Senate on Wednesday night were decided upon fairly because I do not think students were made aware of what was being brought to the table. Students, like myself, were not given a chance to voice their opinions on how OUR money should be spent. Lastly, I am all for publicizing what a fantastic place and institution Ripon College is because, aside from this instance, I have been immensely happy and am proud to call Ripon my home. However, it appears that one of the main factors driving the argument to bring Karl Rove to campus was publicity. This just does not seem right to me. Karl Rove, regardless of whether someone likes him or not, is such a polarizing person and brings up polarizing subjects. Having such a controversial person on campus and then bringing in outside media seems shady. I do not want my college on the news and in the public eye because we brought a controversial speaker to campus. That is not what Ripon should be getting press for. This is attention-seeking in all the wrong ways and not all attention is good attention. Whenever I am in public as a representative of the college whether it was for the Orientation Committee or S.M.A.C., I and others are constantly being told that we represent the college and should be behave in manners such that we do the good name of Ripon College justice. I am discouraged and disheartened because bringing Karl Rove in as a media or publicity stunt seems to be doing just the opposite of that. Bringing such a polarizing figure seems like the exact opposite of "MORE. TOGETHER." Bringing him to campus will and already has, pulled people apart. There is a major upheaval being voiced by students through Facebook statuses and a "we support Parallax" group that grew to 287 members in one day. I would like to note that the people who support Parallax are not solely current students. Alumni have voiced disappointment in their alma mater in this situation as well. At this point, I want to know what there is I can do to reverse or hold the vote that was passed on Karl Rove until senators have appropriately contacted their constituents and have given them an appropriate amount of time to respond. I also think there should be some way for the executive board of the Senate to know for sure whether or not the student body is being reached in regards to the issues because I can almost guarantee that a majority of them are not, have not, and will not be given a say in these matters. I also think something needs to be put in place so that when things like Parallax are called into question that an actual discussion takes place. I was told that no one bothered to ask questions or have a discussion as to why there was any opposition to Parallax's One-Fund. Parallax cannot better itself or their proposal if they do not have a solid grounding in what the issues at hand are. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to stop this or help make these changes. Truly disappointed, Kate Amell